BV  205  .B377  1922 

Bartholomew,  E.  F. 

The  Psychology  of  prayer 


JAN  6    1545   ^ 


The  Psychology 

of 

Prayer. 

A  Study  in  the  Philosophy 

of 

Religious-Experience. 

By 

E.  F.  Bartholomew,  Ph.  d.,  d.  d..  l.h.  d. 

Professor  of  English  Literature  and  Philosophy 
in  Augustana  College,  Rock  Island,  III. 


The  Lutheran  Literary  Board 
Burlington,  Iowa 
1922 


COPYRIGHT  1923 

BY  R.  Neumann 

BURLINGTON.  lA 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 
PRAYER 


Perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
thing  in  human  experience,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  most  common,  is 
the  fact  that  men  pray — not  only 
some  men,  but  all  men.  In  some  form 
or  other,  under  certain  circumstances 
all  men  pray — Jews,  ^Mohammedans, 
Buddhists,  Christians,  Pagans,  Athe- 
ists, Infidels,  Agnostics,  Heathens, 
all  alike  pray.  Prayer  is  not  a  mat- 
ter of  accident,  or  temperament,  or 
sentiment,  or  habit;  it  is  absolutely 
universal,  co-extensive  with  the  race 
of  mankind.  As  far  back  as  we  have 
any   knowledge   men   have   had   re- 


ligion,  and  in  every  form  of  religion 
praj^er  is  one  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous facts.  Some  of  the  oldest 
prayers  which  have  come  down  to  us 
from  the  old  Aryan  world  have  been 
preserved  and  may  be  studied.  As 
far  back  as  ancient  history  goes  men 
have  worshipped  the  sun-god,  and 
the  worshipper  has  offered  prayers 
for  light  and  guidance.  Even  among 
savages  prayer  is  found.  Some  of 
these  prayers  of  barbarians  have 
been  written  down,  so  that  we  may 
examine  and  study  them.  Tylor  in 
his  "Anthropology"  mentions  the 
following:  "Among  the  Zulus,  the 
sacrificer  says,  'There  is  your  bul- 
lock, ye  spirits  of  our  people.  I 
pray  for  a  healthy  body  that  I  may 
live  comfortably  and  do  thou  treat 
me  with  mercj^'  "  Another  is  a 
prayer  of  the  Khouds,  when  offer- 
ing a  human  sacrifice  to  the  earth- 
goddess.  The  sacrificer  says,  "By 
our  cattle,  our  flocks,  our  pigs,  and 
our  grain  we  procured  a  victim  and 


oifered  a  sacrifice.  Do  you  now  en- 
rich us.  Let  our  herds  be  so  numer- 
ous that  they  cannot  be  housed;  let 
children  so  abound  that  the  care  of 
them  shall  be  too  much  for  the  par- 
ents; let  our  heads  ever  strike 
against  brass  pots  innumerable  hang- 
ing from  our  roofs;  let  all  the  kites 
in  the  country  be  seen  in  the  trees 
of  our  village,  from  beasts  being 
killed  there  every  day.  We  are  ig- 
norant of  what  it  is  good  to  ask  for. 
You  know  what  is  good  for  us.  Give 
it  to  us."  These  specimens  of  bar- 
baric prayer  are  illuminating  and  in- 
teresting for  study,  because  they 
show  the  conception  these  savages 
have  of  the  connection  between  sac- 
rifices and  prayer,  and  because  they 
rev^eal  a  certain  mental  attitude  on 
the  part  of  the  worshipper. 

In  the  higher  forms  of  religion 
these  gross  sacrificial  rites  assume  a 
more  spiritual  character,  and  the  act 
passes  into  the  giving  up  of  some- 


thing  which  is  dear  to  the  worship- 
per, and  is  a  sign  of  the  adoration 
acceptable  to  the  god  whom  he  wor- 
sliips.  This  is  a  significant  step  in 
the  evolution  of  the  prayer  idea  as 
an  expression  of  the  worshipper's 
mental  or  spiritual  attitude,  and  has 
great  value  in  the  explanation  of  the 
psychology  of  prayer.  We  may  ask, 
why  should  a  human  being,  however 
ignorant  he  may  be,  prostrate  him- 
self before  a  stake  in  the  ground,  or 
a  pile  of  stones,  or  an  image  carved 
out  of  wood,  and  even  talk  to  these 
objects,  and  ask  a  blessing  of  them? 
When  the  African  or  the  South  Sea 
Islander  assures  us  that  he  believes 
this  stock  or  pile  of  stones  or  carved 
image  is  for  the  time  being  an  em- 
bodiment of  a  divine  spirit,  we  see 
a  new  meaning  of  his  act  and  realize 
that  it  is  worthy  of  serious  study. 


Wherever    there    is    human    life, 
there  is  religion,  and  wherever  there 


is  religion  there  is  prayer.  As  a 
writer  has  said,  "Everywhere, 
whether  among  the  dark  Papuan, 
or  the  yellow  Malay,  or  the  brown 
Polynesian,  or  the  red  North  Amer- 
ican Indian,  or  the  white  Caucasian 
races  of  mankind,  even  among  the 
lowest  of  the  low  in  the  scale  of  hu- 
manity, there  are,  if  we  will  but 
listen,  whisperings  about  divine  be- 
ings, imaginings  of  a  futiu-e  life; 
there  are  prayers  and  sacrifices 
which,  even  in  their  most  de- 
graded and  degrading  form,  still 
bear  witness  to  that  old  and  inerad- 
icable faith  that  everj^where  there  is 
a  God  to  hear  our  prayers,  if  we 
will  but  call  on  Him,  and  to  accept 
our  offerings,  if  they  are  offered  as 
a  ransom  for  sin  or  as  a  token  of  a 
grateful  heart." 

But  when  we  ask,  Whi/  do  men 
pray?  the  answer  is  not  immediately 
apparent.  That,  in  fact,  is  an 
exceedingly  difficult  question  to  an- 


swer.  It  is  one  of  the  deepest  prob- 
lems we  can  ever  undertake  to  solve. 
And  j^et  we  feel  assured  that  a  fact 
so  universal,  so  fundamental  in  hu- 
man experience  as  praj^er  must  have 
some  rational  ground  of  explana- 
tion in  the  nature  of  the  human  soul. 
Such  a  question  cannot  be  decided 
by  matters  of  historical  statement, 
or  by  mere  authority;  it  requires  the 
most  searching  analysis  and  the  best 
light  of  science  and  philosophy.  In 
the  investigation  of  a  subject  like 
this  we  gladly  welcome  every  item 
of  information  or  suggestion  that 
can  come  from  any  possible  source. 
Can  the  science  of  psychology  throw 
any  light  upon  the  phenomena  of 
prayer?  Is  there  such  a  thing, 
among  the  realities  of  scientific 
knowledge,  as  a  psycholog}'^  of 
prayer?  After  examining  our  sub- 
ject in  the  best  light  we  have,  we 
must  say  that  prayer,  in  its  deepest 
ground,  is  a  psychological  problem, 
and  can  be  explained,  as  far  as  any 


explanation  is  possible,  on  psycho- 
logical principles. 


There  are  so  many  different 
aspects  of  prayer  and  so  many  dif- 
ferent elements  entering  into  it,  that 
we  cannot  hope  to  arrive  at  any  sat- 
isfactory results  without  resorting  to 
methods  of  analysis  and  induction. 
The  scientific  method  of  dealing  with 
the  subject  of  prayer  is  to  begin  with 
the  common  facts  of  observation  and 
experience,  and  work  along  the  line 
of  these  facts  as  far  as  they  will  lead 
us.  And  when  we  arrive,  in  this 
way,  at  a  point  where  empirical 
facts  can  no  longer  guide  us,  we 
must  resort  to  the  processes  of  ra- 
tional thought  in  following  the  sub- 
ject into  the  domain  of  the  unseen 
and  the  unknown.  Whether  we  re- 
gard prayer  as  a  specific  state  of 
consciousness,  as  a  form  of  focalized 
attention,  as  an  emotion,  as  a  mode 
of  the  will,  as  a  native  instinct,  as  a 


10 

particular  activity  of  the  spiritual 
ego,  as  the  soul's  orientation  to  its 
divine  origin  and  destiny,  as  an  un- 
conscious recognition  »,  of  human 
weakness  and  dependence,  or  as  an 
auricular  expression  of  the  soul's 
sub-conscious  life — in  whatever  way 
we  choose  to  regard  it,  prayer  is  pri- 
marily a  psychological  fact  that  we 
have  to  deal  with. 

In  the  very  start  we  may  ask, 
What  is  prayer?  The  Bible  gives 
many  examples  of  prayer,  but  no- 
where do  we  find  any  theoretical 
explanation  of  the  mystery  which 
attaches  to  prayer,  nor  does  it  give 
any  definition  of  what  prayer  is  or 
consists  in.  As  the  Bible  nowhere 
gives  any  argument  for  the  exist- 
ence of  God  but  simply  assumes 
such  existence  as  the  foundation  of 
everything  else,  so  it  gives  no  defini- 
tion, no  argument  in  regard  to 
prayer  but  assumes  it  as  a  universal 
fact    of    human    experience.     The 


11 

Master  taught  His  diciples  His  own 
beautiful  prayer  without  telling  them 
what  prayer  is,  neither  was  it  neces- 
sary that  He  should.  In  the  writings 
of  the  theologians  and  the  moralists, 
of  poets  and  wise  men  there  is  found 
a  bewildering  number  of  definitions 
and  statements  about  prayer,  but 
none  of  them  can  be  accepted  as 
scientifically  accurate  or  exhaustive. 
Many  of  them  are  simply  rhetorical 
forms  of  expression,  and  have  little 
value  as  material  for  study.  For  ex- 
ample, we  hear  it  said  that  praj^er  is 
the  finite  communicating  with  the 
Infinite;  or  prayer  is  the  cry  of  the 
soul  to  its  unseen  Creator;  or  Baily's 
familiar  expression,  "Prayer  is  the 
spirit  speaking  truth  to  Truth;"  or 
Henry  Vaughan's  saying,  "Prayer 
is  the  world  in  tune,"  and  so  on  in- 
definitely. These  utterances  may 
all  be  true,  but  as  definitions  they 
have  no  value,  they  do  not  define. 


12 

We  may  gather  i  some  information 
concerning  the  nature  of  prayer 
from  a  variety  of  phrases  and  words 
used  in  the  Bible.  Prayer  is  called 
an  'asking'  (John  15:16);  a  'seek- 
ing' and  'knocking'  (Matt.  i7:7);  a 
'hfting  up  of  the  soul,'  and  a  'pour- 
ing out  of  the  heart'  (Psa.  25: 
1:62:8);  a  'looking  up  to'  and  a 
'talking  with  God'  (Job.  15:4;  Psa. 
5:3) ;  a  'wrestling  with  God'  (Rom. 
15:30)  ;  a  'taking  hold  of  God'  (Isa. 
64:7);  'meditation'  (Psa.  5:1);  'in- 
quiring' (Gen.  25:22) ;  'crying  unto 
God'  (Sam.  7:8) ;  'sighing,'  'mourn- 
ing,' 'groaning,'  'weeping'  (Psa. 
6:6;  12:5;  55:2;  Joel  2:17) ;  'breath- 
ing' (Lam.  3:56);  'supplication,' 
'entreaty'  (Ex.  8:8;  Zech.  12:10), 
etc.  All  these  expressions  are  rich 
as  material  for  psychological  study, 
and  show  that  prayer  is  an  attitude 
of  soul. 


The  analysis  of  an  act  of  prayer 


13 

reveals  the  following  elements, 
which  may  be  divided  into  primary 
and  secondary.  The  primarj^  are 
those  which  are  found  in  all  prayers, 
while  the  secondary  are  present  in 
some  and  not  in  others.  Among 
the  primary  elements  we  may  name, 
(1)  a  feeling -of  need;  (2)  a  sense 
of  dependence  on  a  higher  power; 
(3)  faith  in  the  existence  and  good- 
ness of  God;  (4)  a  desire  for  some 
particular  blessing;  (5)  hope  or  ex- 
pectation of  receiving  good;  (6)  an 
attitude  of  supplication.  The  sec- 
ondary elements  include  such  as,  ( 1 ) 
a  sense  of  sinfulness;  (2)  idea  of 
the  divine  wrath;  (3)  feeling  of  rev- 
erence; (4)  obedience  to  the  will  of 
God— "Thy  will  be  done;"  (5)  con- 
trition of  heart;  (6)  confession  of 
sins,  etc.  The  last  group  of  ele- 
ments is  found  in  all  Christian 
prayer,  but  not  in  the  prayers  of  the 
heathen  man,  hence  the  distinction 
we  make  in  the  two  groups.  This 
analysis  is  not  claimed  to  be  exhaus- 


14 

tive  or  final,  but  it  will  serve  to  bring 
to  our  notice  certain  states  of  con- 
sciousness which  are  fundamental  in 
prayer.  There  is  doubtless  a  psy- 
chological sequence  in  these  states, 
though  we  cannot  always  determine 
this  with  accuracy,  neither  is  there 
an  unalterable  sequence  in  all  cases, 
but  it  varies  with  changing  condi- 
tions. The  feeling  of  need,  it  seems, 
lies  very  deep  in  the  consciousness 
of  the  one  who  truly  prays,  and  per- 
haps to  it  we  may  ascribe  the  pri- 
macy. By  need  we  mean  here  not 
simply  or  chiefly  the  sense  of  priva- 
tion of  some  material  thing  such  as 
food  or  raiment  or  bodily  health,  but 
more  particularly  the  sense  of  the 
soul's  personal  relation  to  the  Author 
of  all  good.  Our  deepest  need  is  to 
be  in  a  right  relation  to  God.  The 
hymn  "I  need  Thee  every  hour"  ex- 
presses the  idea  we  wish  to  convey, 
and  the  stress  is  on  'Thee.'  The 
soul's  deepest  need  is  God.  Out  of 
this  feeling  of  need  grows  the  sense 


15 

of  dependence  on  a  higher  being. 
Tliis  feeling  has  something  of  abso- 
luteness connected  with  it.  How- 
ever much  a  mortal  being  may  mag- 
nify his  independence  and  his  self- 
sufficiencj'',  in  his  inmost  soul  he 
knows  that  he  is  absolutely  depend- 
ent on  God  not  only  for  his  exist- 
ence, his  life,  but  also  for  ever}i;hing 
that  can  make  life  agreeable  and 
successful.  In  the  case  of  the 
heathen  man  this  feeling  of  depend- 
ence is  no  less  distinct  and  absolute 
than  in  the  enlightened  Christian. 
He  who  prays,  believes  that  there  is  a 
God  who  can  hear  and  answer 
prayer,  or  else  he  would  not  pray. 
He  believes,  moreover,  that  God, 
though  unseen,  is  interested  in  his 
welfare  and  is  good  to  give  him  such 
things  as  he  needs  and  desires.  The 
agnostic's  doctrine  certainly  is  in 
opposition  to  the  deepest  instincts 
of  the  human  soul.  In  the  specimen 
prayer  of  the  Khoud,  quoted  above, 
he  says  to  his  god,  "We  are  ignorant 


16 

of  what  is  good  to  ask  for.    You 
know  what  is  good  for  us.    Give  it 
to  us."    This  implies  that  he  believes 
in    a    prayer-hearing    and    prayer- 
answering  God  and  that  this  God 
is  good  and  will  give  him  such  things 
as  are  good  for  him.     The  heathen 
man  believes  that  there  are  spirits 
who    hear    his    prayers.      Herbert 
Spencer's      explanation      that      the 
heathen    man    acquires    this    belief 
from  fear  of  a  dead  ancestor,  does 
not   go   deep   enough.    Belief  in  a 
prayer-hearing  God  or  divine  spirit 
is   one   of  the   soul's   instincts   and 
cannot    be    accounted    for    on    any 
theory  of  custom.  As  a  distinct  state 
of  consciousness,  we  can  analyze  out 
of  every  prayer  the  element  of  desire 
for  some  particular  thing  which  we 
believe  to  be  good  for  us.     Desire 
is  an  antecedent  state  of  mind  which 
lies  back  of  all  petitions,  and  condi- 
tions both  the  will  and  the  form  of 
utterance  in  the  prayer  we  offer;  if 
we   desired   nothing  we  would  not 


17 

pray.  There  is  also  implied  the  hope 
and  the  expectation  of  receiving 
what  we  ask  for.  Hope  and  expec- 
tation are  inseparably  connected 
with  prayer.  The  sixth  and  last  pri- 
mary element  is  an  attitude  of  sup- 
plication, literally  a  bowing,  or  a 
bending  of  the  knee  before  God. 

Prayer  is  not  primarily  a  petition ; 
in  its  deepest  nature  it  is  something 
much  more  than  petition.  There  is 
an  attitude  of  soul  which  lies  far  back 
of  petition.  The  essential  thing  in 
prayer  is  a  certain  attitude  of  the 
soul  in  which  it  realizes  its  relation 
to  the  Divine  Spirit.  ^Irs.  Brown- 
ing once  said  that  in  the  deepest 
agony  the  soul's  only  prayer  is  "O 
God!"  because  we  want  God  Him- 
self rather  than  anything  He  can  do 
for  us  or  give  us.  The  principle  in- 
volved in  this  utterance  some  one  has 
illustrated  thus:  If  a  child  is  far 
away  from  home  and  has  fallen  ill 
or  is  otherwise  in  distress,  his  deep- 


18 

est  longing  is  for  mother  herself 
rather  than  anything  she  might  do 
for  him — just  her  simple  presence 
will  satisfy  the  child's  longing  and 
in  that  every  other  blessing  is  com- 
prehended. So  if  we  eliminate  every 
secondary  and  accidental  considera- 
tion, and  view  prayer  in  its  essential 
nature,  we  may  say  that  it  is  the 
soul's  longing  for  a  consciousness  of 
the  Divine  Presence.  The  deepest 
of  all  prayers  is  "Thy  will  be  done!" 
and  the; really  essential  thing  in  that 
prayer  is  a  particular  attitude  of 
soul.  That  is  what  the  Savior  prayed 
in  Gethsemane.  All  other  things 
fade  from  His  consciousness.  "O 
my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this 
cup  pass  from  me;  nevertheless  not 
as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt" — "not 
my  will,  but  thine  be  done!"  Here, 
as  one  has  observed,  is  no  objective 
petition  for  any  temporal  good;  all 
is  subjective,  all  has  to  do  with  His 
attitude  of  soul.  When  His  con- 
sciousness   of    His    relation   to    the 


19 

Father  was  in  any  way  disturbed  or 
beclouded,  it  caused  Him  unspeak- 
able agony.  It  was  this  that  wrung 
from  His  heart  those  awful  words  on 
the  cross,  "My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  Thou  forsaken  me?"  In  prayer 
the  soul  seeks  to  relate  its  conscious- 
ness to  the  eternal  consciousness. 
Human  aspiration  can  go  no  far- 
ther. As  Carlyle  has  said,  "Prayer 
is  the  aspiration  of  our  poor,  strug- 
gling, heavj^-laden  soul  towards  its 
eternal  Father." 

The  human  spirit  has  a  vague,  yet 
unerring  consciousness  of  its  kinship 
with  the  Divine  Spirit.  In  its  vari- 
ous experiences  it  realizes  the  bibli- 
cal truth  that  God  made  man  in  His 
own  image  and  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  life.  Because 
of  this  kinship  the  soul's  longing  for 
communion  with  the  Divine  is  quite 
natural  to  it.  "As  the  hart  panteth 
after  the  water-brooks,  so  panteth 
my  soul  after  Thee,  O  God.     My 


^.. 


20 

soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living 
God."     This   inspired   utterance   of 
the  psalmist  is  the  best  possible  an- 
swer that  can  be  given  to  the  ques- 
tion why  man  prays.     The  mystery 
of  prayer  finds  its  best  explanation 
in  the   psychology  of  the  sub-con- 
scious self.    If  we  could  read  clearly 
what  goes  on  in  the  great  deep  of 
the  sub-conscious  soul  we  should  un- 
derstand why  the  human  soul  pants 
after  the  living  God  and  why  prayer 
is  the  truest  expression  of  the  soul's 
innermost  experience.   Our  true  per- 
sonal  life   is   vastly   wider,   deeper, 
larger  than  we  know;  our  conscious 
life  is  only  a  very  small  part  of  our 
true  life  which,  in  Bible  phrase,  is 
eternal  life.     The  luminous  peak  of 
our    consciousness    rises    out    of    a 
deeper    sub-realm    of    life,    which, 
though  below  the  threshold,  plays  a 
momentous  part  in  our  experience. 
There  are  mental  phenomena  beyond 
our  conscious  horizon  as  within  this 
horizon,  and  we  may  say  that  with- 


21 

out  the  beyond  we  should  not  have 
the  within.    There  are  blank  regions 
of  consciousness  just   as   there   are 
blank  si)aces  in  sense  experience  of 
which  none  of  the  senses  can  give  us 
any    information.     Of   these    blank 
regions    of    consciousness    we    have 
faint    intimations,     but     not    clear 
knowledge;  at  best  they  appear  only 
in  the  fringe  of  consciousness      No 
man  in  mortal  body  has  ever  seen  to 
the  bottom  of  his  psychic  being  nor 
explored  its  mystic  contents.    As  we 
cannot  see  to  the  depths  of  the  great 
ocean,  so  we  cannot  see  clearly  the 
wonderful   things,  contained   in   the 
abysmal  depths  of  our  spiritual  be- 
ing.   At  some  moments  most  favor- 
able for  introspection,  when  the  sur- 
face is  unruffled  and  the  powers  of 
thought  are  at  their  best,  we  may 
peer  into  the  sliadowy  depths,  but  we 
are  not   able  clearly  to   distinguish 
the  wonders  that  lie  below  the  sur- 
face; we  can  see  mirrored  only  faint 
images    of    our    Divine    prototype. 


22 

Truly  we  know  not  what  manner  of 
beings  we  are,  and  from  this  we  can 
understand  what  St.  John  meant 
when  he  said  "It  doth  not  yet  ap- 
pear what  we  shall  be." 


How  does  God  come  into  the  con- 
scious soul,  and  how  does  the  soul 
commune  with  God  in  prayer?  The 
answer  is,  by  way  of  the  sub-con- 
scious, where  the  human  touches 
upon  the  Divine  and  goes  out  into 
the  Divine.  Through  the  sub- 
conscious soul  the  Infinite  finds  an 
inlet  into  the  finite,  and  the  finite  re- 
lates itself  to  the  Infinite  as  an  estu- 
ary or, tidal  river  relates  itself  to  the 
great  ocean  beyond.  What  does  the 
Apostle  mean  when,  in  his  great 
speech  at  the  Areopagus,  he  says, 
"Though  he  be  not  far  from  every 
one  of  ^us ;  for  in  him  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being"?  This  is 
the  utterance  of  a  mystic  philoso- 
pher who,  in  a  rare  moment  of  inspi- 


23 

ration  and  insight,  has  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  myster}^  of  incarnate 
being  and  of  the  relation  of  finite 
souls  to  their  infinite  First  Cause. 
It  does  not  seem  ,probable  that  this 
wonderful  language  is  meant  to  be 
merely  metaphorical;  it  is  no  figure 
of  speech,  no  mere  comparison,  no 
allegorical  picture  of  the  intimate  re- 
lation of  the  believing  soul  to  its 
glorious  Creator.  We  must  take  his 
language  to  be  a  strictly  literal  state- 
ment of  fact,  setting  forth  a  sublime 
truth  of  psychology  far  deeper  than 
the  average  thinker  suspects.  What 
the  Apostle  here  intimates  is,  that 
in  the  great  deep  of  our  incarnate  be- 
ing we  touch  bottom  on  the  Infinite 
and  discover  our  essential  oneness 
with  the  Deity.  Downward  through 
our  sub-conscious  being  we  go  out, 
as  it  were,  into  the  Abyss  of  infinite 
and  eternal  being  in  so  realistic  a 
way  that  we  may  be  said  to  "live  and 
move  and  have  our  being  in  Him." 


24 

In  the  last  analysis  of  personality 
we  discover  the  fact  that  God  and 
man  are  inherently  bound  up  to- 
gether in  a  mystic  union  which  no 
finite  mind  can  fidly  comprehend. 
Perhaps  tliis  is  the  thought  that 
Wordsworth  had  in  mind  when  he 
wrote : 


"Our    birth    is    but    a    sleep    and    a    forgetting; 

The  Soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 
Hath   had   elsewhere   its   setting, 

And   Cometh   from    afar: 
Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 

And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 

From  God  who  is  our  home." 


There  is  a  hidden  glory  in  man 
which  is  the  image  of  his  glorious 
Creator,  and  this  in  moments  of 
ecstasy  may  shine  forth  in  a  kind  of 
transfiguration  like  that  of  our  Lord. 
If  we  probe  deep  enough  into  self 
we  come  upon  the  Divine  in  every 
personality.  By  some  deeper  prin- 
ciple of  perception  than  that  which 
gives  us  our  sense-world  we  discover 
that  our  lives  are  hidden  in  God  and 


26 

that  "in  Him  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being."  Our  souls  are  but 
inlets  vv^hich  open  on  the  infinite  sea 
whose  shoreless  tides  we  feel  beating 
in  ujjon  us.  In  each  one  of  us  there 
is  a  vast  range  of  latent  faculty 
whose  possibilities  we  but  poorly 
realize.  If  we  could  draw  upon 
these  hidden  resources  we  might  do 
M'onders.  Our  higher  soul-powers 
are  already  in  touch  with  the  spirit- 
ual world.  In  the  submerged  life 
of  the  soul  is  found  the  explanation 
of  the  mystery  of  prayer.  Prayer 
is  the  normal  life  of  the  sub-conscious 
soul ;  it  is  the  normal  mode  by  which 
the  mighty  sub-conscious  activities 
express  themselves  in  our  conscious 
life. 


The  foregoing  remarks  have  led 
up  to  the  idea  which  is  central  in  this 
discussion,  namely,  that  prayer  is  a 
particular  attitude  of  soul.  It  does 
not  consist  in  any  form  of  words; 


26 

there  may  be  prayer  without  spoken 
words  and,  on  the  other  hand,  not  all 
spoken  words  are  true  prayer.  This  is 
illustrated  in  the  prayer  of  the  Phar- 
isee who  "stood  and  prayed  thus  with 
himself — God,  I  thank  Thee  that  I 
am  not  as  other  men  are,  extortion- 
ers, unjust,  adulterers,  or  even  as 
this  publican",  etc.  The  publican, 
on  the  other  hand,  "standing  afar 
off,  would  not  lift  up  so  much  as  his 
eyes  unto  heaven,  but  smote  upon 
his  breast,  saying,  God,  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner." — Note  his  mental 
attitude. — I  tell  you  this  man  went 
down  to  his  home  justified  rather 
than  the  other."  Why  was  not  the 
Pharisee  justified?  Why  was  not  his 
prayer  heard?  It  was  a  form  of  words 
and  not  true  prayer.  His  mental 
attitude  was  not  right.  He  could  not 
be  blessed  in  his  act,  because  his  men- 
tal attitude  was  not  such  as  could 
make  an  answer  to  his  prayer  possi- 
ble. Prayer  denotes  an  asking  atti- 
tude.    "Ask   and   ye  shall  receive". 


27 

Asking  implies  an  open,  receptive 
state  of  mind,  a  state  in  which  the 
ego  puts  itself  in  such  relation  to  God 
that  it  reaches  out  its  hand,  so  to 
speak,  to  the  Giver  of  all  good,  earn- 
estly desiring,  expecting,  imploring 
the  benefits  craved,  an  attitude  of 
spiritual  communion  with  the  source 
of  all  good,  the  finite  face  to  face 
with  the  Infinite. 

We  get  further  light  on  our  sub- 
ject by  considering  when  men  pray. 
]Most  men  pray  only  when  the}"  are 
in  distress  of  body,  mind,  or  estate; 
when  things  go  against  them,  when 
the  sky  is  dark,  when  the  soul  is 
sorely  tried,  when  perplexity  and 
doubt,  adversity  and  tribulations, 
calamities  and  afflictions,  sickness, 
misfortune,  bereavement  and  death, 
come  upon  them,  then  the  soul  turns 
to  God  in  prayer.  In  times  of  pros- 
perity, when  all  things  go  well  with 
us,  when  the  sun  shines,  when  nature 
and  providence  smile  upon  us  and 


28 

we  are  happy,  then  we  forget  to 
pray ;  having  all  things,  there  is  noth- 
ing to  ask  for.  All  this  means  that 
prayer  arises  from  a  particular  men- 
tal attitude,  in  which  the  soul's 
thoughts  and  emotions  and  volitions, 
its  powers  and  its  susceptibilities,  are 
concentrated  upon  one  object  which 
occupies  the  focus  of  consciousness. 
This  idea  is  further  suj^ported  by 
the  fact  that  our  Savior  not  only 
taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  but  He 
himself  prayed.  Why  did  He  pray? 
Was  He,  who  had  all  things  at  his 
command,  in  need  of  anything?  We 
cannot  think  that  His  prayers  were 
ordinary  petitions  for  some  material 
blessing  in  the  human  sense  of  pe- 
titions. We  are  told  that  He  often 
retired  to  the  mountain  solitudes  for 
communion  with  His  Heavenly 
Father.  If  we  examine  particular 
ones  of  His  prayers,  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  the  sacerdotal  prayer  re- 
corded by  St.  John,  or  His  praj^er  in 
Gethsemane,  or  His  prayer  on  the 


29 

cross,  we  conclude  that  they  were  not 
prayers  prompted  by  need  in  the  hu- 
man sense.  They  were  prayers  of 
mental  attitude ;  they  denote  how  He 
felt  His  spiritual  relation  to  His 
Father;  they  show  in  outward  form 
the  inner  experience  of  His  soul.  In 
His  agony  in  the  garden  the  burden 
of  Plis  thought  was  "Not  my  will, 
but  Thine  be  done — "  the  attitude  of 
His  will  to  the  Father's  will.  In 
the  high  priestly  prayer,  "That  they 
may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one" — 
the  attitude  of  spiritual  harmony 
and  unity.  On  the  cross,  "My  God, 
my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me?" — In  all  of  these  we  cannot  fail 
to  see  reflected  His  inward  state  of 
mind.  Everj'where  the  idea  upper- 
most in  His  prayers  was  that  He 
might  be  in  the  right  attitude  toward 
His  Heavenly  Father.  So  like- 
wise the  deepest  thing  in  human 
prayer  is  the  longing  of  the  soul  for 
an  attitude  of  harmony  with  the 
Divine  will,  that  it  may  be  one  with 


Him  and  in  tune  with  spiritual 
things.  The  soul  realizes  that  com- 
munion with  God  is  essential  for 
development  of  spiritual  life;  hence 
where  such  a  yearning  exists,  there 
prayer  is  the  normal  mode  of  soul- 
life.  The  soul  prays  that  the  sense 
of  its  relation  to  God  and  the  spirit- 
ual world  may  be  kept  alive.  Men 
pray  because  they  cannot  help  pray- 
ing, and  they  will  continue  to  pray 
as  long  as  their  psychic  nature  re- 
mains the  same  as  it  is  now.  In 
prayer  men  seek  instinctively  to 
realize  their  ideal  spiritual  selfhood, 
a  self  that  in  some  degree  shall  be 
worthy  of  the  Absolute  Being  whose 
image  they  bear. 

Prayer  being  essentially  a  mental 
attitude,  how  can  we  account  for  the 
language  of  prayer,  the  particular 
postures  of  the  body,  and  the  various 
muscular  movements  connected  with 
prayer?  Prayer  as  a  form  of  speech 
falls  into  the  list  of  muscular  reac- 


81 

lions.  In  its  simplest  form  the  pro- 
cess may  be  thought  of  in  terms  of 
nervous  energy  overflowing  into  vari- 
ous motor  centers  and  thus  produc- 
ing tlie  muscular  movements  implied 
in  speech  and  other  movements  of 
the  body.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  of 
psycholog}^  that  every  idea  and  emo- 
tion, however  remote  and  obscure  it 
may  be,  tends  to  express  itself  in 
some  form  of  movement,  even 
though  .we  are  not  conscious  of  such 
movement.  This  motor  character 
of  ideas  renders  our  muscular  sys- 
tem a  faithful  mirror  of  our  secret 
thoughts.  There  is  employed  in  the 
psychological  laboratory  a  delicate 
piece  of  (.apparatus  which  makes  visi- 
ble and  measures  these  slight  move- 
ments with  wonderful  accuracy.  It 
consists  of  a  recording  device  which 
is  fastened  to  the  top  of  a  person's 
head,  so,  that  his  slightest  movements 
will  be  recorded.  Then  we  ask  him, 
while  standing  perfectly  still,  to 
think  of  some  object  at  his  right  side. 


32 

After  several  moments  the  record- 
ing instrmnent  shows  that  he  invol- 
untarily leans  in  the  direction  of  the 
object  about  which  he  is  thinking. 
The  same  principle  is  illustrated  in 
the  fact  that  when  people  read  they 
unconsciously  accompany  the  read- 
ing with  movements  of  the  muscles 
of  the  throat,  the  tongue  and  the  lips. 
Every  subjective  mental  state  seeks 
its  appropriate  mode  of  expression 
in  some  muscular  movement.    So  the 
particular  thought  or  emotion  which 
occupies  the  mind  at  any  moment  in 
an  act  of  prayer  or  devotion  tends 
to  set   certain   muscles   into   action. 
These   resulting  muscular   reactions 
account  for  the  form  of  speech,  or 
the   posture    of   the    body    such    as 
kneeling,  standing,  prostration,  etc., 
or  particular  gestures  with  the  hands, 
or  the  facial  expression,  which  accom- 
pany prayer.    From  the  psychologi- 
cal viewpoint  prayer  is  thus  a  mode 
of  expression  in  which  an  outgoing 
nerv^e  cm-rent  from  an  inward  idea- 


33 


tional  center  pours  itself  into  motor 
activity  of  some  sort  or  other.  In 
the  case  of  the  Pharisee's  prayer,  his 
haughty  bearing,  his  boastful  words, 
his  scornful  glance  at  the  poor  pub- 
lican were  only  the  outward  expres- 
sion of  his  mental  attitude,  and  this 
explains  why  he  did  not  go  down  to 
his  home  justified. 


We  come  novr  to  the  most  diffi- 
cult   part    of   our   subject,    namety, 

The  E/ficac/j  of  Prayer 

Several  questions  are  here  in- 
volved. ,  Are  prayers  really  an- 
swered? How  are  they  ansvvered? 
Does  it  do  any  good  to  pray?  How 
is  it  possible  for  God  who  is  immut- 
able in  nature  to  answer  prayer?  Is 
the  answering  of  prayer  congnious 
with  the  established  order  of  nature? 
As  a  reply  to  the  first  of  these  ques- 
tions we  have  the  testimony  of  ex- 
perience. 


34 

As  Tennyson  says: 

"More  things  are  wrought  b}'-  prayer 
Than  this  .world  dreams  of." 

The  argument  of  experience  is 
unanswerable.  There  are  tens  of 
thousands  of  men  who  will  testify 
without  qualification  that  their 
prayers  have  been  answered.  This 
faith  is  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  hu- 
man heart  that  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  eradicate  it.  Then,  too,  since 
prayer  is  and  remains  always  a  na- 
tive and  the  deepest  impulse  of  the 
human  soul,  absolutely  universal,  it 
seems  altogether  unreasonable  to 
suppose  that  this  impulse  is  nothing 
but  a  delusion.  Yet  the  agnostic 
voluntarily  commits  himself  to  the 
doctrine  that  there  is  no  reality  in 
prayer,  and  that  even  if  God  could 
hear  the  prayers  of  His  people  and 
would  wish  to  answer  them,  it  is  not 
possible  for  Him  to  do  so.  We  may 
ignore  the  cold  and  fatalistic  philos- 
ophy  of  agnosticism  as   contradic- 


36 

tory  to  human  experience,  and  turn 
our  attention  to  the  constructive  side 
of  our  subject. 

How  is  the  hearing  and  answering 
of  prayer  to  be  reconciled  with  the 
changeless  nature  of  God?  St. 
James  tells  us  that  "Every  good  and 
perfect  gift  is  from  above,  and  Com- 
eth down  from  the  Father  of  lights, 
with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither 
shadow  of  turning."  If  the  nature 
of  the  Divine  Being  is  thus  un- 
changeable, "without  variableness  or 
shadow  of  turning",  and  if  His  pur- 
poses move  on  eternally  to  their  ac- 
complishment like  the  heavenly 
-  bodies  in  their  orbits,  like  the  univer- 
sal order  of  nature,  how  can  these 
purposes  be  modified,  or  the  events 
of  history  and  the  course  of  human 
life  be  affected  in  the  least  degree  by 
prayer?  The  sceptic  argues  that  to 
answer  prayer  would  necessarily 
imply  inconsistency  or  fickleness  in 
God  who  has  already  established  the 


36 

course  of  nature:  that  the  course  of 
nature  being  fixed  and  uniform,  no 
means  are  open  for  answering  sup- 
plications of  any  sort.  In  dealing 
with  this  objection  we  must  consider 
it  from  the  standpoint  of  theism,  be- 
cause on  the  pantheistic  or  atheistic 
or  materialistic  or  agnostic  assump- 
tion there  is  no  room  whatsoever  for 
any  discussion  of  the  possibility  of 
answering  prayer.  Theism  assumes 
that  God  is  a  Person,  capable  of  en- 
tering into  communion  with  men,  of 
hearing  and  answering  their  pray- 
ers, that  He  is  mercifully  disposed 
towards  His  creatures,  that  He  is 
immediately  concerned  in  them,  and 
is  actively  engaged  in  making  pro- 
vision for  their  needs. 

The  difficulties  that  disturb  the 
Christian  believer  are  largely  of  his 
own  making;  they  come  from  mis- 
conception of  the  .character  of  God 
and  of  the  order  of  the  world.  The 
prevailing  idea  of  prayer  has  been, 


37 

in  a  large  degree,  derived  from  hu- 
man analogies  which  are  often  mis- 
leading. To  represent  God  as  moved 
by  prayer  does  not  necessarily  im- 
ply that  He  is  mutable  in  character; 
we  infer  such  mutability  on  a  false 
analog\\  It  does  not  follow,  be- 
cause there  is  an  appointed  order  of 
things,  that  there  is  no  place  left  for 
the  hearing  and  answering  of  prayer. 
There  are  channels  open  between 
God  and  the  human  soul  through 
which  the  Divine  power  may  operate 
to  bring  about  changes  in  the  phys- 
ical order  without  impairing  or  in  any 
way  interfering  with  that  order.  We 
know  that  mind  can  communicate 
with  mind,  that  spirit  can  influence 
spirit,  that  agencies  can  operate  to 
change  an  individual's  will  so  as  to 
modify  his  whole  course  of  life  with- 
out in  the  least  interfering  with  the 
integrity  and  freedom  of  his  person- 
ality. There  is  no  better  established 
truth  in  psychology  than  this.  And 
so,  assuming  that  God  is  a  Person 


38 

with  the  same  kind  of  psychic  nature 
as  that  of  man,  the  Divine  Spirit 
can  communicate  with  the  human 
spirit,  can  influence  the  human  mind 
and  will,  can  impart  light,  guidance, 
courage,  faith,  hope,  love,  strength 
to  resist  temptation,  comfort  in  dis- 
tress, and  in  any  other  way  minister 
to  human  necessities  by  operating 
through  the  ordinary  laws  of  mind. 
This  does  not  involve  any  contradic- 
tion of  the  Divine  attributes. 

The  Christian  believer,  no  less 
that  the  confirmed  scientist,  posits 
the  existence  of  laws  of  nature  and 
a  natural  order  of  things  in  the 
world.  He  believes  that  order  is 
Heaven's  first  law;  his  world  is  a 
world  of  order,  a  cosmos  and  not  a 
chaos;  he  holds  that  all  the  opera- 
tions of  nature,  the  events  of  history, 
the  whole  course  of  human  life,  pro- 
ceed under  the  reign  of  law.  Now, 
are  such  laws  to  be  considered  a  bar- 
rier in  the  way  of  answering  prayer? 


39 

We  believe  that  the  efficacy  of  prayer 
is  grounded  in  conformity  to  the 
laws  of  nature  and  the  universal 
order  of  things.  Browning  is  right 
when  he  says,  "All  is  love,  yet  all  is 
law."  This  is  a  very  great  utterance 
that  states  a  profound  truth  "vvith 
wonderful  accuracy  and  conciseness. 
In  the  kingdom  of  grace,  as  in  the 
kingdom  of  nature,  not  anarchy  but 
law  reigns.  Prayer  is  answered  ac- 
cording to  law;  like  the  working  of 
miracles,  the  answering  of  prayer 
proceeds  under  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect,  even  though  we  are  not  able 
in  all  cases  to, trace  clearly  the  mode 
of  operating.  If  God  can  work 
miracles  under  the  reign  of  law,  so 
also  can  He  answer  prayer  without 
violating  or  suspending  the  estab- 
lished laws  of  the  universe.  A  mira- 
cle is  not  a  causeless  effect ;  there  are 
no  effects  or  phenomena  in  the 
world  without  causes.  A  causeless 
effect  is  unthinkable.  When  any 
kind  of  effect  either  in  the  physical 


40 

or  spiritual  world  is  produced,  it 
means  that  such  an  effect  comes 
from  a  definite  cause.  It  is  a  serious 
error  to  conceive  of  a  miracle  as  an 
effect  without  a  cause,  or  as  a  viola- 
tion or  suspension  of  the  laws  of 
nature.  We  may  assume  that  when 
our  Savior  worked  miracles  He  did 
not  set  aside  or  suspend  or  in  any 
v/ay  whatsoever  interfere  with  the 
existing  laws  of  causation.  To  Him 
who  knew  perfectly  the  hidden 
forces  and  principles  and  elements 
contained  in  the  innermost  constitu- 
tion of  nature,  the  v/onderful  works 
He  performed  vv^ere  not  miracles  as 
we  conceive  of  them;  they  are 
miraculous  only  to  finite  men  who 
do  not  know  the  innermost  nature  of 
things.  Miracles  are  such  only  to 
finite  minds.  To  the  Master  the 
turning  of  water  into  wine,  the  still- 
ing of  the  tempest,  the  healing  of  the 
sick,  the  opening  of  the  blind  eyes 
and  deaf  ears,  the  raising  of  the 
dead  were  not  miracles  in  the  sense 


41 

that  they  were  causeless  effects; 
they  were  natural  effects  in  the 
hands  of  Him  who  knew  the  inner- 
most constitution  of  things  and  who 
could  guide  the  powers  of  nature 
according  to  His  will.  So  if  we 
could  understand  perfectly  ever>^- 
thing  that  is  contained  in  the  order 
of  nature  all  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  answering  prayer  would  vanish, 
and  we  would  plainly  see  that 
though  'all  is  love,'  yet  'all  is  law.' 


What  is  a  natural  law?  We  must 
have  right  conceptions  of  the  terms 
we  employ  in  our  discussion.  Law  is 
not  a  being,  nor  a  force,  nor  an  effi- 
ciency in  the  right  sense  of  the  word; 
law  is  a  particular  mode  in  which  an 
efficiency  operates.  The  efficienc)'  is 
one  thing,  the  law  of  its  operation  is 
something  else.  Behind  the  law  is 
an  efficiency,  a  power  that  can  work, 
an  agent  that  can  guide  and  control 
and    uphold    the    forces    of    nature. 


42 

Material  law  is  a  term  that  is  used 
to  express  the  uniformity  of  the 
sequences  of  nature.  Law  signifies 
God's  plan  and  method  of  acting 
and  bringing  about  His  ends  in  the 
creation  and  government  ofi  the 
world.  The  act  of  God  in  answering 
prayer  need  not  produce  any  vari- 
ation in  the  ordinary  sequence  of 
phenomena  so  far  as  these  are  cog- 
nizable by  man.  The  modification 
of  efficient  causes  in  operation  may 
take  the  place  of  all  proximate 
forces  and  in  a  way  i  which  we  cannot 
perceive.  There  are  mysteries  in  the 
world  of  science  as  well  as  in  re- 
ligion. The  scientist  who  has  his  eye 
closely  fixed  upon  law  frequently 
finds  that  the  mode  of  operation  es- 
capes his  ken,  yet  he  knows  that  be- 
hind all  phenomena  the  reign  of  law 
is  unbroken.  That  is,  there  are  mys- 
teries in  regions  which  his  eye  cannot 
penetrate,  but  this  does  not  distm-b 
his  faith  in  law. 


43 

What  is  meant  b}^  the  uniformity 
of  nature?  Tliis  is  another  scientific 
expression  which  gives  frequent 
cause  of  stumbling  to  Christian  faith. 
But  why  sliould  it?  Because  it  is  not 
understood.  The  uniformity  of  na- 
ture cannot  mean  that  present  phe- 
nomena have  always  existed  or  will 
always  exist  as  we  now  see  them.  The 
sun  has  not  always,  that  is,  from 
eternity,  risen  in  the  east  and  set  in 
the  west,  nor  will  it  continue  forever 
so  to  rise  or  set.  There  was  a  time 
when  there  was  no  sun,  and  the  time 
is  coming  when  there  will  be  no  sun. 
The  theorj'  that  the  natural  world  as 
it  now  exists  and  as  we  know  it,  has 
existed  from  all  eternity  is  not  scien- 
tific, and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  not 
held  by  the  greatest  scientists  who 
know  their  subject.  Science  demands 
beginnings  and  likewise  endings. 
Science,  as  well  as  the  Bible,  has  its 
Genesis  and  Book  of  Revelation.  On 
this  the  teachings  of  science  and  of 
the  Bible  are  entirely  in  accord.   The 


44 

history  of  nature  is  a  record  of  con- 
tinuous changes.  At  certain  critical 
or  epochal  moments  new  forces  have 
been  introduced  into  the  evolving 
world;  from  time  to  time  new  beings, 
new  genera  and  species  of  animals 
and  plants,  new  phenomena,  new 
groups  of  phenomena  have  appeared 
on  the  scene.  Nature  is  not  uniform 
in  the  sense  that  it  is  a  closed  circuit 
so  that  nothing  which  was  not  eter- 
nally in  the  circuit,  can  come  in.  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  has  conclusively 
shown  that  life,  for  example,  could 
not  always  have  existed  on  the  earth 
in  the  evolving  cosmic  mass,  but  must 
have  been  introduced  from  without 
at  a  time  later  than  the  period  when 
the  igneous  rocks  were  formed;  and 
also  that  life  at  any  time  is  not  spon- 
taneously generated,  but  can  come 
only  from  previous  life.  The  latest 
biology  still  holds  the  old  doctrine  of 
omne  vivum  ex  ovo.  Nature  is  uni- 
form in  the  sense  that  the  same  laws 
work  in  the  same  way  and  that  the 


45 

same  causes    tend  to    produce    the 
same  effects,    but  these    laws    and 
causes  may  be  modified  by  superior 
power.     The  laws  of  nature  may  be 
modified  in  their  action  and  in  the 
effect  they  produce  even  by  human 
agency.    When  I  lay  hold  of  a  stone 
lying  here  on  the  earth  and  by  mus- 
cular power  lift  it  up  and  hold  it  in 
the  air  I  modify  the  action  of  the  law 
of  gravity.     I  do  not  destroy  or  sus- 
pend or  in  any  way  violate  that  law; 
I  only  modify  its  customary  effect 
by  the  higher  power  of  my  will.     I 
modify  a  law  of  nature  every  time  I 
lift  my  arm  or  foot.    The  laws  of  na- 
ture are  modified  whenever  a  man 
pimips  water  out   of  a   well  or  con- 
structs a  dam  to  change  the  course  of 
a    stream    or    guides    an    aeroplane 
through   the   air.     Electricity,   by   a 
law  of  nature,  destroys  life  and  prop- 
erty, but  by  superior  intelligence  it  is 
made  to  minister  to  the  comfort  and 
necessities  of  mankind.    In  ten  thou- 
sand ways  man's  intelligence  and  in- 


46 

ventive  ingenuity  is  a  modifying 
agency  in  the  natural  world.  ISIr. 
Burbank  and  the  cattle  breeder  exert 
an  almost  creative  power  in  bringing 
about  new  forms  of  vegetable  and 
animal  life,  not  by  counteracting  the 
laws  of  nature,  but  by  using  and  di- 
recting them  by  their  superior  intelli- 
gence and  power.  If  nature  is  thus 
plastic  in  the  hands  of  the  creature, 
how  much  more  so  in  the  hands  of  the 
Creator!  If  man  can  modify  the 
action  of  nature's  laws  in  working  out 
his  designs,  cannot  God  also  do  so? 
"What  we  call  the  course  of  nature 
is  nothing  else  than  the  will  of  God 
acting  systematically,  either  as  the 
sole  efficient,  or  through  the  interme- 
diary agency  of  a  secondary  cause." 


It  remains  now  to  apply  the  prin- 
ciples we  have  found  and  illustrated 
to  the  matter  of  answering  prayer. 
We  must  classify  prayer  with  mira- 
cles:   what   is   true   of   the   one   is 


47 

equally  true  of  the  other.  As  already 
stated,  we  believe  that  there  are  laws 
of  nature,  that  God  employs  these  in 
the  government  of  the  world,  and 
that  this  is  His  customary  way  of 
dealing  with  men.  But  God  is  not 
a  slave  to  His  laws;  He  is  their 
author  and  He  controls  them  at  His 
will.  We  think  of  God  as  an  intelli- 
gent, free,  self-directing  personality, 
and  therefore  not  fettered  by  the 
laws  which  He  has  instituted  and 
which  He  uses  as  His  agents  work- 
ing His  sovereign  will.  It  would  be 
quite  illogical  to  infer  that,  since 
there  is  an  established  order  of  na- 
ture, no  such  phenomena  as  miracles 
or  answering  of  prayer  could  have 
occurred  or  ever  would  occur  in  the 
future.  A  miracle,  as  J.  Stuart  Mill 
has  remarked,  supposes  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  new  antecedent,  namely,  the 
volition  of  God,  and  the  presence  or 
absence  of  the  antecedent  is  shown 
by  the  effect  produced.  Just  so;  but 
this  new  antecedent  in  the  form  of 


48 

God's  volition  may  at  any  moment 
and  at  any  point  come  in,  and  cer- 
tainly has  come  in  at  innumerable 
points  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
and  therefore  nature  is  not  a  closed 
circuit.  Without  positing  this  'new 
antecedent  of  God's  volition',  it  is  im- 
possible to  write  the  history  of  civili- 
zation or  to  preserve  order  in  the 
cosmos.  No  one  can  get  far  in  the 
interpretation  of  events  or  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  systematic  body  of 
truth  without  bringing  into  the  ac- 
count the  volition  of  God.  Nature  is 
not  unalterably  uniform  in  the  sense 
that  miraculous  effects,  as  we  under- 
stand them,  have  never  occurred,  nor 
ever  can  occur,  if  God  so  wills.  Any- 
thing can  happen  if  God  wills  it,  but 
we  are  assured  that  a  rational  God 
wills  only  that  which  is  reasonable. 
Precisely  so  in  the  matter  of  answer- 
ing prayer.  He  can  answer  prayer, 
if  He  wills  it,  by  working  with  and 
modifj^ing  the  customary  action  of 
His  laws;  but  He  answers  only  such 


49 

prayers  as  are  reasonable.  God  is 
not  bound  by  the  inflexible  chains  of 
fate;  He  is  over  all,  the  Absolute 
First  Cause,  and  so  is  free  to  work  in 
the  system  of  things  as  Pie  may  will. 
If  He  "makes  the  rain  to  fall",  He 
can  send  it  or  withhold  it  as  He 
deems  best.  There  is,  therefore, 
nothing  impossible  or  inconsistent 
with  any  law  of  nature  or  any  princi- 
ple of  the  divine  economy  for  God 
to  answer  Elijah's  prayer  that  rain 
be  withheld  from  falling  on  the  land 
of  Ahab  for  the  space  of  six  months, 
and  again  to  send  an  abundance  of 
rain  when  the  prophet  prayed  that 
rain  might  come.  The  fall  of  rain  is 
governed  by  the  laws  of  meteorology, 
but  God  ordained  and  constantly  up- 
holds these  laws  by  His  will.  He  can 
assemble  the  clouds  and  make  them 
pour  out  bounteous  showers  of  rain 
to  refresh  the  earth  and  minister  to 
the  wants  of  man  and  beast  without 
violating  or  suspending  His  laws  or 


50 

in  any  way  acting  in  conflict  with  the 
order  of  nature. 

There  are  numerous  theories  as  to 
how  prayer  for  physical  changes  may 
be  answered.  We  can  mention  only 
a  few.  Schleiermacher  thinks  that 
prayer  answers  itself  by  operating  as 
a  cause  among  other  causes,  pro- 
ducing its  own  fulfilment.  Similar 
to  this  is  the  view  of  Dr.  Chalmers. 
He  supposes  that  prayer  and  its  an- 
swer may  be  connected  as  cause  and 
effect,  that  these  may  form  a  se- 
quence of  a  very  subtle  kind,  more 
subtle  than  any  of  the  sequences  of 
the  most  latent  physical  substances; 
that  God  may  interpose  among  the 
physical  agents  beyond  the  limit  to 
which  human  sagacity  can  trace  the 
operation  of  law.  In  all  human  af- 
fairs we  know  it  is  a  fact  that  we  can 
trace  the  actual  agency  of  law  but  a 
very  little  way  back.  All  this  may  be 
so,  but  it  is  too  intangible,  too  ob- 
scure, to  make  a  good  working  hy- 


51 

pothesis;  it  is  not  adequate  for  the 
ends  of  a  science  of  psycholog\\  If 
we  may  apply  the  principles  of  psy- 
chology to  explain  the  phenomena  of 
prayer  we  must  build  our  theory'  on 
the  facts  of  consciousness  and  not  on 
metaphysical  subtleties. 

Dr.  jMcCosh,  in  liis  "Divine  Gov- 
ernment", tells  us  that  it  is  not  nec- 
essary to  suppose  that  praj'er  and  its 
answer  form  a  separate  law  of  nature, 
for  the  answer  may  come  as  the  re- 
sult of  other  laws  arranged  for  that 
very  purpose.  Nor  is  it  necessary 
that  God  interpose  to  change  His 
own  laws.  He  has  arranged  these 
laws  so  that  by  their  agency  He  may 
answer  prayer  without  at  all  inter- 
fering with  them.  This  is  good  so 
far.  Then  he  goes  on  to  say  that 
God  answers  prayer  in  the  same  way 
that  He  compasses  all  His  other 
moral  designs.  He  does  not  require 
to  interfere  with  His  own  arrange- 
ments, for  there  is  an  answer  pro- 


52 

vided  in  the  arrangement  made  by 
Him  from  all  eternity.  He  answers 
prayer  by  a  preordained  appointment 
when  He  settled  the  constitution  of 
the  world  and  set  all  the  parts  in 
order.  The  answer  to  prayer  pro- 
ceeds on  the  foreseen  circumstance 
that  the  prayer  will  be  offered.  The 
connection  between  prayer  and  its 
answer  is  not  one  in  the  mechanical 
laws  of  nature,  but  in  the  counsels  of 
God;  and  the  man  who  has  prayed, 
as  he  looks  for  the  answer,  feels  that 
he  must  fall  in  with  the  Divine  pro- 
cedure. Dr.  McCosh  assumes  a  pre- 
arranged harmony  between  the 
prayer  and  its  answer;  both  had 
their  place  in  the  plan  of  the  world. 
The  train  of  causes  is  set  at  the  be- 
ginning, in  the  foreknowledge  of  the 
petition  to  be  offered,  for  the  evolv- 
ing of  an  appropriate  response.  No 
interposition  is  required;  the  reign  of 
law  is  undisturbed. 

This  theory  may  be  plausible  and 
satisfactory  to  one  whose  mind  is  pre- 


63 

occupied  with  ideas  of  foreordination 
and  predestination,  but  to  tlie  present 
writer  it  does  not  seem  good  psj'chol- 
og}',  because  it  sets  aside  the  free  will 
of  God  at  every  moment  and  in  every 
new  emergency  that  may  arise  in  the 
ongoing  of  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
and  also  because  it  does  not  recog- 
nize the  free  action  of  the  petition- 
er's will.  On  this  supposition  the  mind 
of  the  petitioner  is  simply  receptive, 
entirely  passive  and  not  cooperative- 
ly participating.  This  is  similar  to 
that  theory  of  prophetic  inspiration 
which  posits  that  the  medium  of  reve- 
lation, the  prophet  or  apostle,  is  en- 
tirely passive;  he  is  simply  the  pen 
of  the  inspiring  Spirit,  but  his  mind 
or  will  does;not  in  any  sense  partici- 
pate in  the  message;  the  prophet  or 
apostle  is  only  the  flute  on  which  the 
Divine  Spirit  plays,  but  he  takes  no 
part  in  the  music;  the  personality 
of  the  medium  does  not  figure  in  giv- 
ing the  words  of  inspiration.  But 
this  is  certainly  false.     If  this  pre- 


54 

arrangement  theory  is  true  then  the 
petitioner  has  no  active  part  in  his 
petition;  he  is  only  a  passive  looker- 
on  while  the  Divine  plan  is  in  process 
of  fulfilment;  there  is  nothing  else 
for  him  to  do  but  simply  wait  for  the 
fulness  of  time  when  his  petition  will 
be    automatically    answered.      And 
this  is  contrary  to  the  known  princi- 
ples of  psychic  action.    The  mind  of 
man,  neither  in  prayer  nor  any  other 
mode  of  activity,  acts  thus  automat- 
ically.    The  will  of  him  who  prays 
aright  is  a  powerful  factor  in  the  an- 
swering of  his  prayer.    Prayer  is  the 
highest  form  |Of  cooperative  action 
which  a  human  being  can  perform. 
In  a  very  important   way  the   peti- 
tioner must  cooperate  actively  in  the 
process  of  answering  prayer  and  re- 
ceiving the  blessing.     The  blessing 
sought  in  prayer  is  not  thrust  upon 
us  while  we  remain  in  a  passive  state ; 
we  receive  the  Divine  blessing  in  a 
degree  proportionate  to  the  earnest- 
ness and  faithfulness  with  which  we 


55 

do  our  part.  We  ask  and  receive 
not,  because  we  ask  amiss.  And  this 
is  one  way  in  which  we  ask  amiss, 
namely,  when  we  pray  for  God's 
blessing  and  fail  to  do  our  part  to 
make  that  blessing  possible.  If  the 
answer  to  our  prayers  was  arranged 
for  from  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
then  plainly  our  mind  or  will  has  no 
real  part  in  the  process.  Our  Lord 
exhorts,  "Ask  and  it  shall  be  given 
you;  seek  and  ye  shall  find;  knock 
and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you". 
Such  language  implies  an  intensely 
active  state  of  mind  on  the  part  of 
him  who  prays  aright.  "Whatsoever 
things  ye  desire,  when  ye  pray,  be- 
lieve that  ye  receive  them,  and  ye 
shall  have  them."  "If  thou  canst  be- 
lieve, nothing  is  impossible  to  him 
that  believeth."  The  faith  and  the 
will  implied  in  such  utterances  denote 
an  active  cooperating  state  of  mind, 
in  fact  the  most  active  we  can  con- 
ceive, and  not  simply  a  state  of  pas- 
sive receptivity.     The  soul  of  him 


56 

who  prays  in  earnest  lifts  itself  into 
communion  with  God,  reaches  out  its 
hand,  so  to  speak,  to  lay  hold  of  the 
arm  that  sways  the  universe. 

The  words  of  our  Savior  to  the 
father  of  the  lunatic  boy,  "If  thou 
canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible 
to  him  that  believeth",  powerfully 
emphasize  the  dynamic  aspect  of  the 
prayer  of  faith,  which  truly  accom- 
plishes wonders.  And  it  is  not  nee- 
essary  to  suppose  that  the  power  is 
all  supernaturally  imparted  just  at  ^ 
the  moment.  Of  course  all  power 
ultimately  comes  from  the  Divine 
Spirit,  but  the  Holy  Spirit  may  work 
mediately  through  the  human  spirit 
in  the  prayer  of  faith  as  He  does  in  / 
the  act  of  inspiration.  The  Holy' 
Spirit  induces  a  state  of  mind  on  the 
part  of  the  one  who  prays  in  which 
the  latent  resources  of  the  soul  are 
made  available  for  service!  No  man, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  makes 
use  of  all  the  power  God  has  given 


57 

him;  there  is  always  an  unexplained 
and  unexplored  and  unused  remain- 
der of  resources.  A  great  psychol- 
ogist has  said  that  in  the  service  of 
our  daily  life,  if  we  worked  up  to  the 
full  measure  of  our  ability  we  would 
all  be  geniuses. ,  So  if  our  faith-life 
were  keyed  up  to  the  full  extent  of 
its  possibilities,  mighty  works  would 
be  performed.  This  is  what  the  Mas- 
ter meant  when  He  said  to  His  disci- 
ples, "He  that  believeth  on  me,  the 
works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also ;  and 
greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do". 
How  poorly  we  realize  the  possibili- 
ties of  faith  in  a  soul  that  is  fully 
alive  and  dtaws  upon  the  resources 
that  are  liidden  within  its  capacity. 
This  idea  is  suggested  by  the  case  of 
the  lunatic  boy  who  was  brought  to 
the  disciples  of  Jesus  to  be  healed, 
"and  they  could  not".  Why  could 
they  not?  "Then  came  the  disciples 
to  Jesus  apart,  and  said,  Why  could 
we  not  cast  him  out?  And  Jesus  said 
unto  them,  Because  of  your  unbelief; 


58 

for  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  ye  have 
faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  ye 
shall  say  unto  this  mountain,  Remove 
hence  to  yonder  place,  and  it  shall 
remove;  and  nothing  shall  be  impos- 
sible unto  you.  Howbeit,  this  kind 
goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fast- 
ing". Their  failure  was  not  due  to 
a  lack  of  ability,  but  to  the  fact  that 
they  had  not  the, state  of  mind  and 
heart  necessary  for  the  occasion.  The 
statement  that  if  they  had  "faith  as  a 
grain  of  mustard  seed"  they  could 
remove  mountains,  is  to  be  taken  in  a 
literal  sense.  Not  that  by  simply  be- 
lieving the  mountain  would  remove, 
but  if  they  had  the  right  mental  atti- 
tude, the  right  faith  and  will,  they 
would  put  agencies  and  forces  into 
operation  that  would  certainly  bring 
about  the  desired  result.  Faith  im- 
plies a  state  of  mind  in  which  its 
powers  are  active  and  its  resources 
are  made  use  of.  According  to  the 
words  of  the  Master,  the  condition  of 
a  miracle-working    faith  is    that  of 


59 

"prayer  and  fasting".     The  efficacy 
of  "prayer  and  fasting"  consists  in  a 
kind  of  spiritual  discipline  which  sets 
free  the  latent  powers  of  the  soul  and 
so  makes  possible  the  performance  of 
a  work  which  otherwise  could  not  be 
performed.     When   the  Savior   here 
mentions  'fasting'  as  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  power,  He  refers  to  a  deep 
psychological  truth.    There  is  a  close 
relation  between  'fasting'  and  mental 
activity.     It  has  been  observ'^ed  that 
prolonged  abstinence  from  food  fre- 
quently results  in  highly  sharpened 
intellectual  powers.     Numerous  ex- 
amples of  this  are  found  in  the  liter- 
ature   of    history    and    biography; 
many  actors,  speakers,   and   singers 
habitually   fast   before   their   public 
performances.     Fasting  has  marked 
effects  in  the  way  of  speeding  up  the 
mental   and  spiritual   processes  and 
of    clearing    and    invigorating    the 
mind.     It  is  a  significant  fact  that 
fasting  has  been  practiced  in  all  ages 
and  in  all  the  ancient  religions,  with 


60 

perhaps  the  single  exception  of  that 
of  Zoroaster.  It  appears  to  .  have 
been  in  use  also  among  the  semi-civil- 
ized and  savage  tribes  in  both  hemi- 
spheres. Among  the  Israelites  it  was 
an  established  custom  which  they  ob- 
served with  gi'cat  diligence.  It  was 
also  practiced  among  the  early  Chris- 
tians. The  Reformers  returned  to 
the  original  conception  of  fasting  as 
a  means  of  self-discipline  and  a  prep- 
aration for  prayer.  Our  Lord  Him- 
self fasted.  It  cannot  be  that  a  prac- 
tice so  universal,  commended  by  the 
greatest  of  men,  and  encouraged  by 
Christ  Himself,  is  a  mere  supersti- 
tion. It  is  a  principle  in  human  na- 
ture which  serves  the  important  pur- 
pose of  strengthening  the  mental 
powers  and  making  the  soul's  re- 
sources available  for  service. 

Prayer  induces  a  dynamic  state  of 
mind  in  which  the  soul's  powers  are 
keyed  up  to  the  Hmit  of  their  possi- 
bilities ;  it  serves  to  convert  the  soul's 


61 


potential  energ}'  into  actual  miracle- 
working  power.  It  acts  like  a  burn- 
ing glass  to  concentrate  the  energies 
of  the  soul  to  a  focus;  it  brings 
about  a  psychic  state  in  which  the 
soul,  like  an  electric  conductor,  be- 
comes charged  with  dynamic  energy 
which  pours  itself  into  the  motor 
tract  to  be  given  out  in  the  perform- 
ance of  works  that  would  not  be  pos- 
sible in  the  ordinary  state.  Prayer 
acts  like  a  mental  tonic  to  tone  up  and 
invigorate  the  soul  into  a  state  of 
forceful ness.  It  begets  a  holy  con- 
fidence in  which  the  soul  lays  hold  on 
omnipotence  and  draws  into  itself 
divine  strength.  It  has  been  said  that 
if  we  cannot  move  God  toward  us  by 
prayer,  we  do  move  ourselves  toward 
God.  By  this  means  a  channel  is 
opened  for  the  influx  of  divine 
power.  When  men  enter  into  the 
fulness  of  the  prayer-life  they  come 
into  a  condition  of  superior  forceful- 
ness  in  which  not  only  the  larger  con- 
ception of  life  is  realized,  but  the 


62 

soul  discovers  its  kinship  and  unitj^ 
with  God.  God  answers  our  prayers 
by  taking  us  into  His  confidence  and 
by  the  influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit 
so  working  upon  our  spirits  that  we 
are  made  to  cooperate  with  Him  in 
securing  the  blessing  asked  for. 
When  God  created  us  in  His  own 
image,  He  conserved  in  our  spiritual 
nature  mighty  powers  and  sublime 
possibilities  which  in  prayer,  through 
the  Divine  influence,  are  called  forth 
into  action  for  the  performance  of 
works  that  seem  miraculous. 


DATE  DUE 


y^^^^.,^.~^,Met<sp*' 


